IF YOU ask Freddie Roach about today?s much-awaited third fight between Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera, the top-notch trainer would tell you he is rooting for Barrera to win the scheduled 12-round super-featherweight battle at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
But rooting and predicting are two different things.
“But I think Morales is gonna win this one,” Roach said yesterday while on board Manny Pacquiao?s red Ford Expedition en route to a local hospital in Davao where his fighter is scheduled to undergo routine medical tests.
“But I don?t think he can knock Barrera out (just like what Manny did),” stressed Roach, who is honing up Pacquiao for a Dec. 11 non-title fight against Fahsan 3K Battery of Thailand at the Fort in Taguig.
Roach and Pacquiao have both agreed to watch the fight on TV since the outcome is going to play a major part in the Filipino puncher?s itinerary for 2005.
The winner of the Morales-Barrera fight is going to take on the winner of the Feb. 26, 2005 rematch between Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez.
Morales won the first fight when they were still 122-pounders, but Barrera exacted payback when the fight was at 126 lbs.
This time, the bout will take place at the 130-lb level with Morales staking the World Boxing Council crown.
Pacquiao stopped Barrera in the 11th round last year in San Antonio, Texas, prompting boxing experts to say the Mexican would no longer have the strength to make a comeback.
After bowing to Pacquiao, Barrera scored a 10th-round knockout over Paulie Ayala that paved the way for his third tussle with morales.
